


Every Waking Hour

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Langst, at least hunk is there to give him some, he needs hugs, induced insomnia, poor lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:17:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Lance has been dosed by a drug that doesn't allow him to sleep. It's left him absolutely wrung out, confused and sore all over. Hunk does what he can to help until the drug wears off.





	Every Waking Hour

Hunk felt his heart break a little as he found an utterly lost Lance wandering down the hallway that lead to the kitchen.

“Lance?” he asked.

Lance turned to face him and Hunk felt his heart break even more as he got a good look at his best friend’s face. The circles under his eyes had darkened so much so that they resembled bruises, and they stood out starkly against Lance’s skin, which was much paler than usual. If Hunk was honest, Lance looked more like a walking corpse than anything else. Not that he was going to mention that to Lance. Definitely not.

Lance blinked blearily at Hunk for a long moment before recognition flashed across his mostly blank features, “Hunk?” 

“Yeah, man, it’s me.” Hunk replied, reaching out to steady Lance when he wobbled.

“Hunk, I… Wh-where are we? I don’t - shouldn’t we be in class? Or… something? I don’t know.”

Hunk fought the urge to grimace, Lance’s confusion had started up the previous day and only seemed to be getting worse. He wasn’t supposed to be left alone in this state. Hunk wondered briefly whose food he needed to burn for letting Lance out of their sight.

“We’re in the Castle of Lions, Lance. No more school for us.”

Lance blinked back at Hunk, obviously not comprehending any of what he’d just said.

“We’re in… a castle… made of lions?”

Hunk sighed, “It’s a long story. You sure you don’t remember it?”

Lance swayed again and Hunk reached out to steady Lance with his other hand as well.

“I think we should go sit down.” Hunk said, and began steering Lance to the lounge area close to the kitchen.

Lance fell silent as they walked, obviously putting all his concentration into putting one foot in front of the other. 

“Did you get any sleep at all earlier?” Hunk asked once he’d finished helping Lance to sit down.

Lance shook his head and suddenly there were tears in his eyes. Hunk felt his heart break the completely at the sight of Lance looking so miserable, and felt his own eyes prick with tears of sympathy. Such misery did not belong on his best friend’s face. Only happiness belonged on Lance’s face, and it killed Hunk that there wasn’t much he could do to help at the moment. 

He sat down and pulled Lance into a hug, “It’s okay,” he murmured to Lance, “It can’t be much longer now. Soon you’ll be able to sleep again.”

Lance let out a broken sounding sob, “I c-can’t do this anym-more, Hunk-k. E-everything hur-ts. Especially my h-head. I can’t think. Can’t ev-en f-feel Bl-lue any-more!” he cried into Hunk’s chest. “I m-miss my mom! I just wanna go home!”

Hunk tightened his grip on Lance and felt his own tears slip down his face as he continued to murmur assurances to his wrung-out friend. He so wished that he could somehow take all of Lance’s pain away, but he knew that wasn’t possible. 

Inwardly he was direction every curse he knew at that stupid bounty hunter that had taken advantage of Lance’s trusting nature while they’d been in on a trade planet and given him a spiked drink. Luckily Keith had been nearby, and had apparently smelled something weird in Lance’s drink. He’d stopped Lance from finishing the drink, thank goodness, but the damage had still been done. Keith sent the bounty hunter packing, and at first Lance seemed fine, even teasing Keith for his super Galra nose.

By the time they reached the Castle, Lance still seemed fine, but Keith dragged him straight to the infirmary and told Coran to run the necessary tests to see what Lance had been dosed with. Lance had complained through the whole thing, assuring everyone that he was fine. But then Coran had looked up from his scanner’s readouts with a near-horrified expression that scared the living daylights right out of Hunk. Even Lance and Keith cut their bickering off at the sight of it. 

Coran explained that Lance had been dosed with a powerful sedative. So powerful, in fact, that it should basically have put Lance into a coma, and that was with the small amount he’d ingested. Hunk had shuddered at the thought at what might have happened if Lance had finished the whole drink. Coran was amazed, at first, that Lance was even still awake. But then he’d remembered that in some species the sedative had the opposite effect - it kept them awake for days. 

That had been four days ago. In that time, Lance had probably slept for a grand total of two hours, if that much. He would try to sleep, but all he managed was a light doze at best. The effects of sleep deprivation had started making themselves known by the end of the second day and had only gotten worse since then.

Eventually Lance quieted in Hunk’s arms and then, as if by some miracle, Lance’s breathing seemed to even out into what sounded a lot like sleep. Hunk didn’t dare move, afraid he might break the spell. 

When Lance didn’t jerk awake after about ten minutes, Hunk slowly started moving, readjusting their position until they were stretched out on the couch, Lance still held tightly in his arms. Lance didn’t so much as stir. It seemed like he was finally getting some real sleep. Hunk let out a relieved breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. And then he yawned. He hadn’t realised how tired he was. He let his eyes slip closed.

Some time later, he felt something warm settle over them and cracked an eye open to see Shiro tucking a blanket in around them. Shiro noticed Hunk’s cracked open eye and smiled. Hunk glanced down and saw that Lance was still fast asleep against his chest. He looked back at Shiro and returned the smile as relief filled his chest. 

“Go back to sleep.” Shiro whispered.

Hunk nodded once, and did as he was told.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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